Wireless determination of a position has been known for many years. Each technique and corresponding wavelength has its strengths and drawbacks. One significant drawback has been the specialized equipment and training required to utilize wireless position determination equipment. For example, use of systems such as radar and lidar requires specialized equipment and training.
In contrast, most people have access to a smart device. The proliferation of global positioning system (GPS) capabilities by smart devices has alleviated the need for such specialized equipment and training by incorporating the specialized circuitry into the smart device, and proliferating apps that operate the GPS circuitry. Smart devices are used almost ubiquitously by people in first-world population centers. Smart phones and tablets are often within reach of people capable of operating them and are relied upon for almost any purpose for which an app may be written.
Some Smart Devices have been incorporated into devices normally operated by people in their daily lives. Such Smart Devices may be included in a larger “smart” ecosystem, a popular example of which is a smart home. The term “smart home” generally refers to use of appliances, security devices and climate control devices that are controlled by a processor of one sort or another. In general, these are consumer devices, made for the convenience of the user and efficiency of use of a related device.
However, known geolocation technologies (as may be deployed with modern Smart Devices) also have drawbacks. GPS is purposefully limited in its accuracy by the government. Other technologies and corresponding standards (which operate at different wavelength bands), such as Bluetooth and WiFi, are easily obstructed and have very limited range.
Many devices using the Internet of Things include communication elements deploying any one of numerous standards such as Bluetooth, WiFi, Cellular and other examples. It would be useful to improve communications, location tracking, and generalized tracking of devices carrying wireless communications especially in complex environments that are larger than the typical broadcast range of a particular wavelength or have aspects that inhibit wireless communication.